Introduction

COGENT is a graphical tool for building computational models and managing
research programmes in cognitive modelling. It supports the development of a
series of executable cognitive models, within an environment that interfaces a
box and arrow style specification language with a symbolic modelling
language.

The graphical interface allows the user to specify a model by drawing boxes
and connecting them with arrows. By then specifying further details of the
boxes, the user can execute or "animate" the theory. Figure 1 shows a
typical COGENT box and arrow diagram.

Figure 1: A COGENT Box and Arrow Diagram

The different shapes of boxes in the diagram in Figure 1 reflect boxes with
different properties or behaviours. For example, rectangular boxes with
rounded corners correspond to buffers or boxes whose primary function is
information storage. COGENT provides a range of configurable box types, as
shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: COGENT's Hierarchy of Box Classes

COGENT has been used to develop cognitive models in a range of domains,
including: